SDSU’S SHEPARD SUSPENDED THREE GAMES BY NCAA

The latest college basketball player snared in the increasingly nebulous web of NCAA “impermissible benefits” is heralded San Diego State freshman Winston Shepard.

The 6-foot-8 forward has been provisionally suspended three games and sat out Tuesday’s home opener against San Diego Christian while SDSU waits for the NCAA to rule on its appeal.

A brief release by SDSU’s athletic department said: “The penalty is a result of Shepard inadvertently violating an NCAA rule. Upon becoming aware of the situation, the San Diego State coaching staff immediately reported the situation to the compliance staff, which self-reported the issue to the NCAA.”

Aztecs coach Steve Fisher declined comment about the suspension’s particulars, other than to say: “This is ongoing. We’ve known about it for a long time.”

Shepard was unavailable.

The NCAA has ramped up its vigilance of what it deems “extra benefits” that jeopardize a player’s “amateur” status. Already this season, men’s basketball players from UCLA, South Carolina, Texas, Memphis, New Mexico and two from No. 1-ranked Indiana have been suspended or held out of games — most notably UCLA’s Shabazz Muhammad, the nation’s top incoming freshman.

SDSU did not outline the details of the alleged transgression, but several people close to Shepard told U-T San Diego that it involves a car he purchased in September with a loan co-signed by a family he had befriended while attending Findlay Prep in Las Vegas. No money was provided, the sources said, but Shepard, 19, needed someone to co-sign the loan because no one else in his immediate family qualified.

Shepard, according to people not authorized to speak publicly about the case, was unaware he may have violated the NCAA impermissible benefits rule and returned the car after “three or four days.”

The NCAA calculated benefits of approximately $400 and, because it is a relatively small amount, meted out the standard suspension totaling 10 percent of the regular season, or three of 30 games. The NCAA generally has athletes repay the money to a charity of their choice.

Violations with four-figure benefits, as in the case with Indiana freshmen Hanner Mosquera-Perea and Peter Jurkin, can fetch nine-game suspensions, or 30 percent of the season.

UCLA is still awaiting word from the NCAA on Muhammad, and some media outlets are reporting it could be in the same ballpark (taking him out of the Dec. 1 game against SDSU).

Shepard’s suspension was supposed to start Sunday with the “Battle on the Midway” against No. 8 Syracuse, but SDSU officials successfully argued that, because it was such a unique event and the violation was minor in nature, Shepard should be allowed to start any suspension this week. The NCAA agreed, and Shepard played 21 minutes for the No. 25 Aztecs in 62-49 loss on the deck of an aircraft carrier.

“I was appreciative when they said they’ll let him play in the Midway game,” Fisher said. “I think sometimes if you take cases independently, you treat kids more fairly.”

SDSU has appealed the three-game penalty (but not the fine) and isn’t expected to get an answer until later this week at the earliest. If other cases across the country are any indication, though, it is unlikely the NCAA will overturn the suspension.

That would take Shepard out of Saturday’s game at Missouri State and a Nov. 21 home date against Arkansas-Pine Bluff. In the meantime, he is allowed to practice and participate in other team functions except travel.

The NCAA rule is intended to prevent athletes from receiving money or favors not available to all students, mostly from athletic boosters. But the rule reaches back to the relationships a player makes in high school, targeting people outside the immediate family — even if a player views them as “family.” The NCAA considers it a university’s responsibility to educate athletes about the rules and self-report any past violations.

In the Indiana case, Mosquera-Perea and Jurkin were deemed to have received $9,702 and $6,003, respectively, in travel and other benefits from their AAU coach. The problem was that the coach had made modest contributions to IU’s “Varsity Club” in the 1980s and early ’90s, technically classifying him as a booster, although an NCAA official said his link to the school goes “beyond” that.

At Memphis, junior college transfer Geron Johnson was suspended for three games, the school said, for “extra benefits received … from a family friend who assisted the family with his educational expenses prior to his enrollment.”

At South Carolina, freshman Lithuanian center Laimonas Chatkevicius is serving a six-game suspension for undisclosed benefits from his U.S. host family during high school in Connecticut.

Or there’s the case of New Mexico point guard Jamal Fenton. He’s suspended three games for renting a ballroom at a discounted rate for his 21st birthday party at a local Marriott hotel, which is a UNM athletics sponsor. Documents accessed by the Albuquerque Journal under the open records act indicated the ballroom normally goes for $750 a night and Fenton got it for $500.